1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, to print a document, a target document and a print instruction are inputted to an apparatus and the document is printed. In this instance, operations such that contents to instruct a printing method such as a duplex-mode instruction are held by a document different from a print target and a pair of such contents and the print target is inputted to the apparatus are also executed. The document including the instruction contents is called an instruction manual or a job ticket (JobTicket). By using the job ticket, it is possible to store the complicated instruction contents and easily repeat printing by the same printing method. By using the job ticket, the user can request a product in a final state (for example, “a book in a book-binding state”) irrespective of the existence of an apparatus for actually executing the printing or functions of the apparatus.
As another prior art, in order to obtain one product, processes such that the printing is simultaneously executed by a plurality of apparatuses, their outputs are finally collected, and the product is formed are also executed. For example, in the case of outputting a plurality of copies, those copies are divided to a plurality of apparatuses and the same copy is outputted thereto or the copy is divided into page ranges and distributed to the plurality of apparatuses or the like. Further, there is also a case of dividing the distribution contents in accordance with a type of apparatus. A process in which such a technique is most effectively used in a system of a small scale constructed by an office printer or the like is a color distribution printing process such that black and white (monochromatic) printing and full-color printing are separately executed and, thereafter, printed pages are collected to one page. Ordinarily, since there are differences in throughputs and running costs between a monochromatic printing apparatus and a color printing apparatus, an advantage in terms of a speed and costs which are obtained by respectively printing a monochromatic page and a full-color page by the proper apparatuses is large.
Usually, in the distribution printing process as mentioned above, a special instruction for the distribution printing is not always described in the job ticket itself. This is because if the final product is an object, distributing means is not always information that is necessary for the job ticket and, in the case of the job ticket in which the number of copies or the page range is specifically divided and instructed for the purpose of distributing, printing processes other than the distribution printing process cannot be executed.
There is also a technique such that when the techniques (the print instruction by the job ticket and the color page discrimination distribution printing) as mentioned above are combined, information regarding a color drawing object is held in the job ticket in order to efficiently divide the print instruction. Thus, the color page and the monochromatic page can be discriminated even if page data or image data expressed by a page description language are not analyzed. Even if the job ticket is transferred to a system which does not perform the distribution printing, the processes can be progressed without forcing the distribution printing.
Among the job tickets, there is also a job ticket which instructs editing for performing a page layout of the original page data onto an output page. For example, there are “nUp” printing for arranging a plurality of pages of original data onto one output page and the like. Specifically speaking, there are “2in1” in which every two pages are reduced and arranged onto one page, “4in1” in which every four pages are reduced and arranged onto one page, and the like.
According to such a page layout instruction job ticket, there is a possibility that when reprinting is executed by such a job ticket, the page layout method is finely adjusted. For example, there is a situation such that when the reprinting is executed by using a job ticket for performing the page layout to one-side, the page layout is changed to the both-side layout and print data is outputted. The reason why the same job ticket is used in spite of the fact that the instruction of the job ticket is edited again (instruction contents are changed) is because in the case where the user wants to set all instructions other than the page layout instruction to the same condition, the job ticket is used as the basis for the instruction contents.
In such a situation, if information regarding the color drawing object is held in the job ticket, color information of all pages has to be updated in association with the change in page layout, so that a merit which is obtained when the job ticket is used decreases again to the half.
From the reasons as mentioned above, in the system using the job ticket including the page layout instruction, there is a problem such that in a color page discriminating process in the distribution print system, it is difficult to realize high efficiency by holding the information into the job ticket.